MCO Flights - Cancelled???

Dear All,

Can I believe my eyes!!! Yet another hurricane heading towards the USA! I feel really bad for them this year... There have been loads! Can't ever moan about the british weather again... EVER!

Anyhow, from the weather reports, it looks like Wilma will hit florida on Sunday morning. Trouble is, I am supposed to fly out from MAN on Monday Morning VS75!

I have booked 4 z class tickets for the family, and wondered what the situation is if VS cancel flights...

I can see them cancelling Sundays flight as it is when the bad weather will hit. If they do, what happends to the pax from that flight? Are they moved to Monday's? If they are moved to Monday's flight, who gets priority on Monday's seats? Delayed pax or booked pax?

If they cancel Monday's flight (ie, the flight I am on), Do VS have to put me up in a hotel until they can fly me out there?

Any other general advise around bad weather and bad flights would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Danno

From what I gather its too soon to say where the "wilma" will actually go, the track is at the moment based on computer models
and may shift from what they expect.

I imagine it will be 24hrs before an expected landfall before a decision to cancel flights take place.

Originally posted by Danno
Can I believe my eyes!!! Yet another hurricane heading towards the USA! I feel really bad for them this year... There have been loads! Can't ever moan about the british weather again... EVER!

If they cancel Monday's flight (ie, the flight I am on), Do VS have to put me up in a hotel until they can fly me out there?

Our weather service has actually run out of names for the hurricanes. They use a system based on the alphabet to name them, and apparently if there is any more, they will be named using greek letters. So the next one could be "Alpha", then "Beta", etc...

As for your hotel question. Not sure about VS policy, but at DL, and I believe NW and CO are the same, you would not be put in a hotel due to a weather caused operational disruption, as it is out of the control of the airline.

That being said, about 12 years ago (yes I was like 8 years old) I was traveling with VS with my mom. We were diverted to BOS enroute from LHR to JFK, due to high winds closing EWR, PHL and JFK. As we missed our JFK connection, VS did send us to the Hilton for the night. When we arrived at the hotel, there were passengers everywhere trying to get accomodation (as the airport was actually closed). The hotel staff walked up and down the lines asking people what airline they were flying. An answer of "Virgin Atlantic" took you to the front of the line to pickup a room key. Anything else... you still stood there.

Come to find out the next morning, that VS called ahead and reserved rooms for all of their passengers. Excellent customer service in my opinon- and one of the main experiences that's made me stay with VS all these years.

Not to mention that at that time, we had no frequent flyer status or anything. They really treated all of their passengers that night like royalty, and it's stuck with me at least.

So to answer your question, techncially I don't think they would, but VS has gone above and beyond in service more than a couple times, so you never know. Depends on the circumstance I suppose.

[preiffer]

Originally posted by webdes03
Our weather service has actually run out of names for the hurricanes. They use a system based on the alphabet to name them, and apparently if there is any more, they will be named using greek letters. So the next one could be "Alpha", then "Beta", etc...

The Weather Channel don't seem to agree with that theory, they say it's a rolling system (?), 6ish years at a time.

The Hurricane watch websites do have the next ones name as Alpha, should there be one. weatherstreet.com

Originally posted by easygoingeezer
From what I gather its too soon to say where the "wilma" will actually go, the track is at the moment based on computer models
and may shift from what they expect.

Yeah, I agree! It could hit anywhere at the bottom of the USA... Just doing a little contingency planning, and getting an understanding of what Virgin do when flights are cancelled etc.

I have made a reservation @ SAS Radisson for Monday and Tuesday night... If we get to fly, I can cancel them without cost. If we dont, we are nice and close.

I have my fingers and toes crossed on this one...

Danno

The track prediction is, as egg says, just a prediction. Nevertheless these storms do perform to prediction quite well, not least because of the amount of effort and technology that goes into studying them.

To me this looks like a right bomb. The pressure is in the low 880's. On the charts I was looking at (NOAA) that pressure gradient means sustained winds over 160knots (Gulp)- with a statistically relevant upwards limit maybe 20%, that means people could be looking up to nearly 200 knots with freak gusts even beyond that.

To make it still worse, it is well south and skirting much of the american ismuth as well as Cuba. Although it is pretty cold comfort, thank God that the NW turn happened early enough for it to avoid a full hit on economicly depressed places like Honduras, although they are probably still having a bit of a bad time.

From there it appears that it has little way out with out hitting the US somewhere, probably on Saturday. The only positive appears to be that Florida, the most likely hit, is only just within the 1-2-3 area - the rule of thumb that defines where will be hit by a depression before it fizzes out. But this is only a rule of thumb....

All in all a pretty depressing situation.

It's now apparently the most intense hurricane ever recorded with pressure down to 882mb and winds of 175mph! Projected currently to turn and hit southern Florida after moving between Cancun and Cuba ... yes Danno, when you say that we should not complain absolutely - compared to hurricanes, typhoons and then other natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis we are blessed!

However with regard to your flights, it's forecast to have passed over Florida on Sunday so with some luck you may not have to change flights.

But they're already evacuating the Florida Keys so expecting a bad time again down there.

I really have sympathy for the residents of the area, having been through two typhoons and an earthquake. It is also unfortunate that these popular holiday resorts are situated in natural disaster prone areas. But as long as the advantages seem to outweigh the dangers people will, I believe, continue to flock there in droves.

Originally posted by easygoingeezer
The Hurricane watch websites do have the next ones name as Alpha, should there be one. weatherstreet.com

That's because it's not known yet whether they will need to use the extra names for this season.

Paul: Webdes means that for this year the names have almost run out. It is true that the names repeat every 6 years and that the names related to bad hurricanes (like Katrina) are removed.

'For more information please follow this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_names or visit your local library '

prehaps you could send that link to fox news as well;)

It cases such as this it is not the usual policy to offer compensation or hotel accomodation as it is beyond the airlines control.

In the instance that you divert en-route or at destination due to weather this is different as the airline has entered in to a contract with you to fly you from A to B. Once you have left A and had to go to C as a result of weather the airline has a duty of care to look after you until such time as they can get you to B.

For anyone interested, here's a link to the US Government Hurrican Centre; its the best source of factual info on these hurricanes

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Viz.

Originally posted by G-VOPS
In the instance that you divert en-route or at destination due to weather this is different as the airline has entered in to a contract with you to fly you from A to B. Once you have left A and had to go to C as a result of weather the airline has a duty of care to look after you until such time as they can get you to B.

Thanks G-VOPS,

If a flight is cancelled... Who gets priority... The delayed pax or the pax who have a seat on the next aircraft???

Thanks

Danno

Latest (from US tv weather)--Wilma seems headed for Cancun but may veer towards Cuba and Florida. Huge storm but central high winds seem to be the greatest and that area is not as large. My sense is that it is anyone's guess which way she will veer. Some forecasts even include Wilma's flying up the coast to...Boston! After a week's flooding we do not need more rain.

Re re-booking, VS seem to be right on top of weather events re re-booking and hotels/return flights but I know that doesn't really help when you're looking forward to a holiday. Hurricane season seems to be a chancy time to book (although I write this on return from a week's professional development work at Disney Orlando where the weather has been gorgeous, but is on the cusp of change with prediction to back to 80's by Monday).

RR

Originally posted by G-VOPS
It cases such as this it is not the usual policy to offer compensation or hotel accomodation as it is beyond the airlines control.

In the instance that you divert en-route or at destination due to weather this is different as the airline has entered in to a contract with you to fly you from A to B. Once you have left A and had to go to C as a result of weather the airline has a duty of care to look after you until such time as they can get you to B.

Strictly this is correct, but remember that passenger delays and canx are covered by eu regs and VS publish these here

It does, as expected, give a clause for events beyond the control of VS.

Paul

Virgin Atlantic site is now offering travel disruption advisory on their site.

Phil (Buffy)

FOX News showing it currently hitting Cancun, and dropping 40 inches of rain

I spoke to Virgin today, and they offered to move me to Friday's flight... And bring me back 17 days later!

A nice offer... but I can't take the kids out of school for more than 10 days... So we can't take them up on the offer!

We are going to the airport on Sunday night, and will stay in a hotel till they can fly us out [V]

Danno

looks like it might be a cat1 southern fl hit mon, so orlando might be ok,
pray for those in mexico though it must be scary as crap there right now

Woooo Hoooo :D:D:D

Gotta take my hats off to Virgin on this one...

After several calls the the Upper Class reservations line, VS have managed to move me from Mondays MAN to MCO flight to the Sunday flight from LGW to MCO!!! And, even thou I am on a Z class ticket, have not charged me a penny!!! [y][y][y]

We also get the LGW clubhouse :D

So, Thanks VS!!! Customer Service at its best!!!

I guess this makes up for the downgrade from upper to Prem in January.

Taa VS!!!

Danno[y][y][y]